United Technologies Corporation, or UTC, was formed in 1929 as United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, combining airplane makers Boeing, Vought, Stearman, and Sikorsky, engine maker Pratt & Whitney, propeller maker Hamilton, and several small airlines that were combined into United Airlines. The antitrust people partially broke up the monopoly in 1934.
The modern fan-type multi-bladed*** propeller ***was invented for marine use by Josef Ressel, a Czech inventor, in 1827.
Feb 27, 1827 saw the 1st Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans…
The title of Duke of Orleans was traditionally given to the oldest brother of the King of France, if it was not already in use.
John Wayne, “The Duke”, was born in Winterset, Iowa. Winterset is where there are several covered bridges and where The Bridges of Madison County was set.
Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster were a Canadian comedy team that started up during their stint in WWII, and continued on into the 80’s, specialising in sketch comedy. One of their classic sketches was “Wash the Blood Off My Toga,” about the assassination of Julius Caesar.
Frank Poole (played by Gary Lockwood) was, along with David Bowman (Keir Dullea), one of the two crewmen of the spacecraft Discovery not in hibernation when the ship began its long voyage to Jupiter in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Poole was killed by the murderously-malfunctioning HAL 9000 computer (voice by Douglas Rain).
***Rain ***that falls from clouds but evaporates before it reaches the ground is called “virga”. This word was coined by meteorolotists in the 1930s, before that there was no specific word to describe. Virga also occurs on Venus, where the “rain” is sulfuric acid.
*Virga *is the Latin word for rod, staff, or twig. The title *Virga Jesse *is ascribed to the BVM, and a text often set to music by composers is:
In the House of Commons, the Sergeant-at-Arms is responsible for security in the chamber. In the Lords, the equivalent position is the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, commonly abbreviated to “Black Rod.”
The same offices are used in the Canadian House of Commons and the Senate, although the translation for “Black Rod” into French unfortunately uses a term which can be a colloquial term for … um .… the male anatomy.
One of the other responsibilities of the Sergeant-at-Arms is that of ceremonial custodian of the Mace of the House.
At the beginning and end of every day when the Australian House of Representatives sits, the Speaker of the House enters and leaves the House preceded by the Sergeant-at-Arms carrying the mace on his right shoulder.
The current Mace is made of gilded silver, and was a gift to the House from King George VI on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Australian Federation in 1951.
The current US Speaker of the House, the 61st such person, is John Boehner of Ohio. Prior to Boehner, Namcy Pelosi of California was the 60th Speaker.
The current Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons, Andrew Scheer from Saskatchewan, is the youngest Speaker in Canadian history (32 at the time of his election).
In poker a *full house *is a hand consisting of three cards of one rank and a pair of another rank.
There are 3,744 possible *full houses *from a standard 52 card deck. Since there are 2,598,960 possible hands, the chance of being dealt a *full house *is about 0.144%.
In the last census, Hariharpur, Sagarmatha, Nepal, had a population of 3,744. Mostly, probably , living in full houses.
The last woman to be hanged in Australia was the convicted murderess Jean Lee. The execution took place at Pentridge gaol in Melbourne on 19 February 1951.
In the United States today, hanging is only legal in the states of Washington and New hampshire.
Hampshire County Cricket Club is typically thought to be one of the most under performing teams in the County Championship.
The state of New South Wales is divided into 141 counties for the purposes of surveying and registering land titles. Almost the entire Sydney metropolitan area is within the County of Cumberland.
The number of ‘county equivalents’ in each USA state ranges from the 3 counties of Delaware to the 254 counties of Texas. Alaska’s Unorganized Borough is divided into 11 census areas which are statistically equivalent to counties. As of 2013, the United States has 3,007 counties and 137 county equivalents for a total of 3,144 counties and county equivalents.